A COMMUNITY OF ONLY 6,000 PEOPLE, the City of Ulysses sits in the dry, flat, southwestern corner of Kansas. With only about 16 inches of rainfall each year, golf in Ulysses would be almost impossible without the use of recycled water. Until recently, this water was provided by three sewer lagoons built in the 1980s. However, the consistency of the water supply became a ongoing problem for both the city's nine-hole Bentwood Golf Course and for the city itself, with too much water being discharged from the lagoons in the winter and not enough water being available in the summer when the course had to compete with local farms for water.
"A lot of communities would have made the choice just to dig a big pit to evaporate the water because it would have been the least hassle," says Jeff Kreie, former superintendent of golf and parks for Ulysses. "But if this community wants to survive and thrive, it just can't have the basics. You need to dress yourself up a little bit to attract people."
Working with the Kansas Alliance for Wetlands and Streams, the city developed a new wastewater system that involved creating new wetlands, resurrecting an old, dry lake, and adding nine more holes to the golf course as well as improving the parkland around the lake. The $1.2 million water project was largely funded by the city's sewer fees and gas well income, along with a small amount of grant money.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Kreie explains how the system works. First, treated effluent from the sewer lagoons is pumped into six 200-by-200-foot wetland cells, arranged in pairs. Water enters the first pair of cells, is filtered by the plants and microorganisms, and exits a little bit cleaner than when it entered. The process is repeated in the next pair of cells and then the final pair, where by now the water is significantly cleaner than when it left the treatment plant. The water then travels through underground pipes to 5,000-feet of manmade stream channels with riffles to stir the water, while the three-foot deep sand streambed provides further filtering. The stream ends in a three-acre equalization marsh and from there the water travels through more underground pipes into the newly restored 18-acre lake. The golf course pumps its irrigation water from the far end of the lake. Kreie notes that aside from the initial set of pumps from the treatment plant to the wetland cells, the water flow is entirely gravity-driven and all of the town's wastewater now goes through this system.
As plans began to take shape to improve the water system, local golf advocates simultaneously seized the opportunity to repeat their long-standing calls for an 18-hole course.
"Golfers have been wanting to expand the golf course for about 30 years," Kreie explains. "About the time this lake rehab project was going to go through, the golfers had gotten a city council that was probably willing to listen. They knew that this project and the golf course expansion really worked together even though they were separate projects."
The Ulysses Golf Board was tasked with fundraising, successfully bringing in $150,000 for the expansion. Although a landscaping company provided the final shaping for the tees and greens, qualified volunteers provided labor to work the city's earth-moving equipment to rough in the course. Kreie says a core of five or six people donated 13 successive weekends to the project, enabling the back nine to be constructed for only $500,000. In an interesting historical twist, the volunteer work effort echoed the time local residents rallied together to construct the front nine holes in the 1950s--then for a cost of $800. The new back nine opened in 2010.
Non-golfers also have seen improved recreation, with the restored lake now the centerpiece of 280-acre Frazier Park, featuring new playgrounds, four miles of hiking and biking trails, and new picnic pavilions. Birding groups now tour the park, and schools have begun making nature visits.
"The former lake was surrounded by cottonwoods and elms and native shrub," Kreie says. "Before we started the lake project, it had been dry long enough that over half of those trees were dead. The whole area was going to die.... A lot of the wildlife that had been there had left because there was no water for them anymore. Once we put that in, right away the migratory fowl came back--there'd be thousands of ducks and geese--and we started seeing the deer again.
"People would come to town just to go to the park," Kreie continues. "It made it a lot busier place."
ELIZABETH BEARD is Managing Editor of Parks & Recreation.
Beard, Elizabeth
Source Citation
Beard, Elizabeth. "Fresh filtered: how Ulysses, Kansas, got cleaner water and better golf." Parks & Recreation Jan. 2012: 12+. Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine Collection. Web. 17 Mar. 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA277984967&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=PPSM&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A277984967
A COMMUNITY OF ONLY 6,000 PEOPLE, the City of Ulysses sits in the dry, flat, southwestern corner of Kansas. With only about 16 inches of rainfall each year, golf in Ulysses would be almost impossible without the use of recycled water. Until recently, this water was provided by three sewer lagoons built in the 1980s. However, the consistency of the water supply became a ongoing problem for both the city's nine-hole Bentwood Golf Course and for the city itself, with too much water being discharged from the lagoons in the winter and not enough water being available in the summer when the course had to compete with local farms for water.
"A lot of communities would have made the choice just to dig a big pit to evaporate the water because it would have been the least hassle," says Jeff Kreie, former superintendent of golf and parks for Ulysses. "But if this community wants to survive and thrive, it just can't have the basics. You need to dress yourself up a little bit to attract people."
Working with the Kansas Alliance for Wetlands and Streams, the city developed a new wastewater system that involved creating new wetlands, resurrecting an old, dry lake, and adding nine more holes to the golf course as well as improving the parkland around the lake. The $1.2 million water project was largely funded by the city's sewer fees and gas well income, along with a small amount of grant money.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Kreie explains how the system works. First, treated effluent from the sewer lagoons is pumped into six 200-by-200-foot wetland cells, arranged in pairs. Water enters the first pair of cells, is filtered by the plants and microorganisms, and exits a little bit cleaner than when it entered. The process is repeated in the next pair of cells and then the final pair, where by now the water is significantly cleaner than when it left the treatment plant. The water then travels through underground pipes to 5,000-feet of manmade stream channels with riffles to stir the water, while the three-foot deep sand streambed provides further filtering. The stream ends in a three-acre equalization marsh and from there the water travels through more underground pipes into the newly restored 18-acre lake. The golf course pumps its irrigation water from the far end of the lake. Kreie notes that aside from the initial set of pumps from the treatment plant to the wetland cells, the water flow is entirely gravity-driven and all of the town's wastewater now goes through this system.
As plans began to take shape to improve the water system, local golf advocates simultaneously seized the opportunity to repeat their long-standing calls for an 18-hole course.
"Golfers have been wanting to expand the golf course for about 30 years," Kreie explains. "About the time this lake rehab project was going to go through, the golfers had gotten a city council that was probably willing to listen. They knew that this project and the golf course expansion really worked together even though they were separate projects."
The Ulysses Golf Board was tasked with fundraising, successfully bringing in $150,000 for the expansion. Although a landscaping company provided the final shaping for the tees and greens, qualified volunteers provided labor to work the city's earth-moving equipment to rough in the course. Kreie says a core of five or six people donated 13 successive weekends to the project, enabling the back nine to be constructed for only $500,000. In an interesting historical twist, the volunteer work effort echoed the time local residents rallied together to construct the front nine holes in the 1950s--then for a cost of $800. The new back nine opened in 2010.
Non-golfers also have seen improved recreation, with the restored lake now the centerpiece of 280-acre Frazier Park, featuring new playgrounds, four miles of hiking and biking trails, and new picnic pavilions. Birding groups now tour the park, and schools have begun making nature visits.
"The former lake was surrounded by cottonwoods and elms and native shrub," Kreie says. "Before we started the lake project, it had been dry long enough that over half of those trees were dead. The whole area was going to die.... A lot of the wildlife that had been there had left because there was no water for them anymore. Once we put that in, right away the migratory fowl came back--there'd be thousands of ducks and geese--and we started seeing the deer again.
"People would come to town just to go to the park," Kreie continues. "It made it a lot busier place."
ELIZABETH BEARD is Managing Editor of Parks & Recreation.
Beard, Elizabeth
Source Citation
Beard, Elizabeth. "Fresh filtered: how Ulysses, Kansas, got cleaner water and better golf." Parks & Recreation Jan. 2012: 12+. Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine Collection. Web. 17 Mar. 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA277984967&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=PPSM&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A277984967
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